Okay, open your Bibles to the
book of James. Book of James, we'll continue
our study. We'll be in chapter two now in
the book of James. Wonderful book. It's been a very profitable study
going through this book. And today we'll be looking at
verses 8 to 13 in James chapter 2. And the name of the message
is, Offend in one point, guilty of all. Offend in one point,
guilty of all. Now these verses before us are
further explanation of the pure religion declared in the last
verse in chapter 1. which is summed up in the effects
of the gospel that the gospel has on those who receive the
gift of faith, those who are given the gift of faith by God
and we receive it as a gift, don't we? And we're taught as
believers throughout the scripture to love God and love your neighbor.
This is taught for believers throughout the scripture. And
you know what happens when you do that? If we love God and we
love our neighbor, do you know what happens in loving our neighbor?
we don't treat them with partiality. Remember what we looked at last
week? So if we love our neighbor as
we should, we won't treat them with partiality. Isn't that amazing? It's so true. And why do we love
our neighbors and love the Lord? Well, because the love of God
is shed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God. And when we're born again, that's
when that occurs. We don't have the love of God
in our hearts naturally. No, we have an enmity with God
in our natural state. But by the power and might of
God, the Holy Spirit, when we're born again, now we have the love
of God spread abroad in our hearts. And now we love things we once
hated. Isn't that amazing? God's incredible, isn't he? He's
absolutely incredible. And the love for our neighbors
is general and universal, and the love for our God is singular. We love our great God. We don't
love him as we should. And when we're supposed to love
the Lord with all our heart, mind, and soul, there's only
one person who did that. Right? That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And think of this, beloved. He
did that in our room and place. Isn't that wonderful? But we
still, as believers, we love God, don't we? We love God and
we love our neighbors. And James is gonna set this truth
as a matter of law. Now the use of the concept of
the law does not refer to the old covenant as a rule of life,
but rather it's employed in a strict sense. Law is an absolute. And used here to say that faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ produces works, right? Good works, though,
which we will see were ordained for us by God. And we don't even
know when we do those good works. Do you know that? Because if
you look at the great white judgment throne and the Lord says, well,
You've done it on the least of my saints, and we don't even
know. The saints say, when did we do these things? We have no
idea, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? We can't
boast in anything, can we? Can't boast in anything. But
the faith that the Lord Jesus Christ gives us produces those
works that we are appointed to do without partiality. without partiality, which we
see about fourth in verses, well, we see that about fourth
in verses one to seven. My brethren, have not the faith
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect to
persons. For if there come unto you, your assembly, a man with
a gold ring and goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor
man and vile remnant, that means filthy clothes, too, in the Greek,
and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and
say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place, again, that's the
back row for Baptists, and say to the poor, Stand there under
my footstool. Are ye not then partial in yourselves,
and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved
brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of the world, rich in
faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which he hath promised to them
that love him? but ye have despised the poor. Do not the rich man
oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they
blaspheme that worthy name by which ye are called? With that in our minds now, let's
read verses eight to 13. Let's continue reading. If you
fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself, you do well. But if you have
respect of persons, you commit sin and are conceived and are
convinced of the law as a transgressor. For whosoever shall keep the
whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For
he that said, do not commit adultery, said also, do not kill. And remember
the Lord spiritualized the law, right? He said if you look on
a, for a man or a woman, if you look on a man or a woman with
lust, you've already committed adultery with them. If you are
angry with your brother, you've already killed him. So when the
Lord spiritualized the law, we're all guilty, right? It shows us
we're all guilty. But this verse 10 shows us we're,
look at verse 10. For whosoever shall keep the
whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all. And
it goes on to say, now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou
kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, so do
as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he
shall have judgment without mercy, and hath showed no mercy, and
mercy rejoices against judgment. Now we as believers, we read
these texts here before us, and we're immediately convicted,
aren't we? My oh my, just verse 10. Verse 10, for whosoever shall
keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of
all. My, oh my. This brings forth our failures
constantly. We're lawbreakers, aren't we,
by nature? We're lawbreakers by nature. We read verse 10 there
and it just, it slays us. For whosoever shall keep the
whole law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all. Now here's
a searching question. Who among us can truthfully say
that we love God with all our hearts? Who among us can truthfully say
that we love our neighbors as ourselves? And this brings us
to the subject of the passage, having faith, having the faith
of the Lord Jesus Christ, looking to him and him alone. And that
faith that we have is a gift from God, isn't it? Faith that
we have is a gift from God, and it centers in the truth that
Christ alone has made perfect obedience to the law of God in
our place. He is the substitute. Do you
see how important substitution is? It's so important. You got a bunch of people out
there in religion trying to keep the law. But the scripture says if you
offend in one point, you're guilty of it all. We just saw that,
didn't we? See, that's why our faith is centered on the one
who kept the law for us. Now you preach like this and
some people try to call you antinomians. I'm not an antinomian. I don't
believe we can go out and do whatever we want. I don't believe that, I don't
know any grace preacher that has ever said that. But people
say that when you say, well, I'm not under the law, Christ
fulfilled it for me. People immediately, now is the
law still there? Yes. Is the law holy? Yes. Yes, but
I can't keep it. Can you? No. But our great substitute
kept it for us, didn't he? Hallelujah, what a savior. So
I'm not under the law anymore because Christ is the end of
the law for what? Righteousness. He's done it all
for me and for you as a believer in our place. And he did it 2,000
years ago, isn't that wonderful? Now we love the law of God, don't
we? Absolutely, because it comes from our king. But it shows us
our inability. It's a schoolmaster and it brings
us to Christ, doesn't it? Makes us flee to him. And to
look to his perfect obedience. So when we're born again by the
Holy Spirit of God, we come under conviction with the knowledge
of our failures, with the knowledge of our sins, don't we? And this serves to cause us to
do some things. First, it causes us to look away
from our efforts. And obedience is evidence that
we have faith. If we looked at ourselves, to see evidence that we have
faith, we'd all be despairing, wouldn't we? Right? Now, when it says make
your election and calling sure, that's looking at yourself, but
that's, am I trusting Christ? You see? There's a difference,
isn't there? Am I trusting Christ? I don't put faith in my faith,
right? We put faith in Christ, don't we? He's our king. He's our Savior. So we have to
look away from ourselves and look to Christ. Turn, if you would, to the book
of Titus. Titus. And thinking this way
of causing us to look away from our efforts as obedience is evidence
that we have faith. Look at this in Titus. Titus chapter 3, verses 4 to 7. But after that
the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. When did that happen? Well, Christ
was manifested in the flesh, wasn't he? He was manifest to
take away our sins. Not by works of what? Righteousness,
which we have what? Done. Well, that's clear, isn't it?
Right? But according to His mercy, He
saved us. So what's that telling us right
there? That's telling us that we cannot be saved by works of
righteousness, which we supposedly done. Because all our righteousness
is what? Like filthy rags in the eyes
of the Lord, right? But according to His mercy, He
saved us by the washing of regeneration, born again in the Holy Spirit
of God, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified, remember,
that's rendered righteous, I love that, rendered righteous by His
grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life. So what a hope we have in Christ. And the second thing
it does is that when we look at the law, it drives us to Christ,
doesn't it? It drives us to Christ, who alone
obeyed God in all things. He alone obeyed God in all things. And he did it for us, and we
know he did it for us because he was sinless. All he could
do was good. All he could do was obey God,
right? He's sinless. In his life and in his death,
he's absolutely sinless. He has manifested to take away
our sin. Well, God's law has to be satisfied, right? Absolutely,
to the letter. He done it all. He done it all
in our room and place. Listen to the words of the master.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law of the prophets. I'm
not come to destroy, but to fulfill. That's the words of the master.
Well, who was he fulfilling that law for? Me. And if you're a believer,
you. Isn't that wonderful? That's
glorious, isn't it? Because for us to offend in one
point of the law is to break it all. Well, we're lawbreakers,
aren't we? But praise be to God, our substitute
did it all for us. Oh, that's good news. That's
good news. Christ fulfilled the law, he
completed it. Christ fulfilled the law by his
own personal unbroken obedience, and Christ fulfilled the law
by his sufferings and his death. All is our substitute. All is
our substitute, that's good news. And thirdly, we're not looked to our faith
as producer of our works, but rather the channel for works.
Because we are the branches, and He's the vine. Now He uses means, doesn't He?
God uses means. He uses means to, He uses a preacher
to preach His word. His word goes out, gets posted
out, and He uses it for His glory, and out it goes. And He's the
one who gives the increase, isn't He? We can't give the increase,
only He can. Isn't that marvelous? It's wonderful. Our master said,
without me, you can do nothing. The Lord Jesus Christ said that
to his apostles and to us, too. As we read the scriptures, he
says, without me, you can do absolutely nothing. That's humbling,
isn't it? But it's true. Could we save
ourselves? Nope. Can we keep ourselves? Nope. Can we make ourselves born
again? Nope. Can we make ourselves fit for
glory? Nope. But can he make us all those things? Yep. And
he did. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. So, and the concept of the law
here is not viewed as condemnation, but it's an absolute principle
of freedom to do what is right, even though we do it imperfectly.
Now the fact that we cannot obey the law perfectly does not release
us from loving our neighbor, right? Or loving God, because
as believers, that'll come naturally for us. I remember Donnie saying one
time, I don't have to like my neighbor, but I gotta love him,
or something like that. He made some, oh, he had me rolling
when he said that. He was so funny. But no, we're
called to love our neighbors, aren't we? Sometimes that can
be difficult if you've got a hard neighbor to live beside, but
that's okay. Oh my. Turn, if you would, to Ephesians
2.10. I want to show you something here. Look at this. This is an incredible
verse, and it comes right after, for by grace are you saved through
faith, and not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. So the verses preceding this
show us that salvation's all of God, and that it's a gift
of God. And then look at, look at, people
don't read Ephesians 2.10, and this is an absolute, well, they
read it, but this is an absolute wonderful verse. Look at this.
For we are his workmanship. Remember the potter and the clay?
We're his workmanship. Remember God makes vessels of
honor and vessels of dishonor? We're his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus, look
at this, unto good works. What? Yeah. Which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. We're redeemed from death and
sin to life and glory by the free grace of God, aren't we?
Think of this, election, redemption, calling, effectual calling, repentance,
faith, sanctification, and eventually eternal glory are all ours by
the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ. And faith in
Christ is the way, the means, or the instrument by which we
receive and enjoy salvation. And this saving faith is not
the product of man, but it's a gift of God. And we receive
salvation by faith, don't we? All the glory goes to God. And
therefore, any works of righteousness done by us are not ours. And that's what we see here in
verse 10. Any works of righteousness which we do are not ours. but they're all by the grace
of God, which is brought forth very clearly there in Ephesians
2, verse 10. And ties into the works, which
James is bringing forth too. These works don't save us, but
they prove that we've been granted faith. They prove our faith. I ask you, I've asked you many
times this before, but I'm gonna ask you again. Think of this. Did you love God before He saved
you? No, right? I didn't love God
before He saved me. I had a God of my imagination
who I thought, but He was nowhere near the God of the Bible. Now
I love God. Even though my love is fickle,
like everybody else's too, right? We all are. He's faithful, isn't
He? He's faithful. But that love
that I have in my heart for God, the true love for God, that proves
our faith, doesn't it? Something's changed, isn't it?
There was an operation done by the power of the Holy Spirit
of God, and now that love for God is shed abroad in our hearts,
isn't it? Wasn't there before. Wasn't there before. So we see
in verse 10 there of Ephesians chapter 2, Paul bought forth
that we are saved by grace alone, through Christ alone. And then
he brings these wonderful words. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. That's the same stuff James is
talking about, beloved. See, people take James and they
say, well, it's such a legal book. No, it's not. We're finding
out it's not a legal book, is it? It's a wonderful book. It's
an absolute wonder. It's all about freedom and liberty
in Christ. It's wonderful. In Colossians
1.29, Paul wrote this, That's the same thing that Paul's talking
about. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. This is the same thing James is talking about too, beloved. God's grace is the cause, the
source, and sustaining power in salvation and excludes any
works, right, for salvation. As making any contribution in
our justification, The spirit that lives in us is the spirit
of what? Love, joy, faith, humility, truth. And our calling is a holy
calling. And he works in us love, doesn't
he? Joy, peace. It all comes from him, beloved.
It's the Holy Spirit working in us. The love that we have
for the brethren, right? And I mean true love, I don't
mean fake love. The love that we truly have for the brethren.
That's wrought by God. That's wrought by God, beloved.
And our faith is grounded in the perfect law, absolute principle
of liberty, which we saw in chapter one, right? The gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that perfect law is the gospel,
the good news and glad tidings. of what God has required and
what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. So believers
by the grace and mercy of God are free to love God and to love
their neighbor. We're set free. It's liberty,
isn't it? It's not something we, it's something
we get to do. Hey, we didn't love God before,
now we love him. And that's only by the power
of God, We might not have loved their
neighbors before, and sometimes it's tough to love them, isn't
it? But now, what do we think, though? They're lost. Lord, please
save them if it be your will. If it be your will, Lord. So
James brings us to see in the royal law in verse eight, when
he brings forth the fact that if we show partiality to a rich
brother or a poor brother, which we looked at in verses one to
seven, we commit sin. Look at verses eight and nine
of James chapter two. If you fulfill the royal law
according to the scripture, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself,
you do well. But if you have respect to persons,
you commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors. Then comes the convicting verse,
that if we break the law on one point, We're guilty of it all. What does this do? This shows
us our desperate need for Christ, doesn't it? This shows us our
desperate need for Christ. Again, we're all lawbreakers
in our natural state and in our flesh, even after we're born
again, aren't we? Oh my, but praise God that's
not counted against us, is it? Oh, hallelujah. We're sinners
saved by grace. Look at verse 10 again. For whosoever
shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's
guilty of all. So let's consider verse 10 here a little bit more.
Notice what's being brought forth in these words. James is bringing
forth that a single breach of the law, a single breach of the
law, a single law broken means we
guilty of breaking all the law. A single offense committed against
the law is a breach of all of it. And this fact is undeniable,
right? It's right here before us. What does this bring forth? You
know what this brings forth? The utter depravity of man. That's
exactly what this verse brings forth. The fact that all the
world is guilty before God. That's what this verse brings
forth. All the world, guilty before God. There's only one
human being who was born without sin, and that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we clearly see in this one
verse that all have sinned and all come short of the glory of
God, like Paul wrote in Romans. And as a consequence of that,
no flesh can be justified in his sight, right? In our natural
state. in our natural state. How many
times did we break the law? Oh, how many times do we break the
law, God? Oh my gosh. Therefore, all the world are
found guilty, whether they believe it or not. Everybody, this verse,
this verse brings forth the utter guilt of sinners, all sinners
before God. One breach, you know what one
breach does? It shows a contempt for God.
That's what one breach of the law shows the contempt that we
naturally have for God, for the law giver. And to break one of
God's laws is to break them all. And the child of God knows, we
know this. We know this after we're born
again. Because we know the plagues of
our own heart, don't we? Even after we're saved. And it
is such only those who are born again that Christ becomes exceedingly
precious. Because we see our guilt, don't
we? We see just how guilty we are. And so Christ becomes so
precious to us, beloved. So precious to us. Because in
Him, In Him, all our sins are forgiven. In Him, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them. In Christ Jesus, none. So we see our utter guilt. In our natural state, we have
no hope. And then we see that Christ has
done it all for us. He didn't break one of God's
laws, beloved, as our substitute. He said, I came to what? Fulfill
the law, remember? For us. What a Savior. So we see that for us to break
one of God's law, we're guilty of them all. But then we see
in Christ, our great substitute, in His life and in His death,
completely fulfilling the law of God in our place. And He was
raised for our justification. He was raised for our justification. Isn't that wonderful? Absolutely
wonderful. And now we have through regeneration,
through being born again by the Spirit of God and His mighty
work, now we have a love for God, we have a love for Christ,
we have a love for the Gospel, we have a love for the Bible,
we have a love for God's people, we have a love for our neighbors. What a miracle! Oh my! It's all by the power
of God. All by the power of God. And then James gives us an idea,
or sets forth an example for us here about loving our neighbor.
Loving our neighbor. And think upon this, love for
your neighbor absolutely assures that you will not be partial
to your neighbor. You won't be partial to them based upon their
social status. Because love, as Brother Tim
James brings forth, is the great equalizer. It's the great equalizer. Love never works ill to his neighbor,
and since neighbor's in a generic term here, that not only involves
the household of faith, but also all men, then partiality in reference
to status is forbidden, which we looked at last week. However,
James does not here deal with the universal aspect of love
for your neighbor, but rather addresses it to respect of persons
as it relates to the family of God, the church. And he brings
that forth in verse one, he says, brethren. Verse five, he says,
my brethren. He's writing to the beloved brethren
of God. And James here speaks to all
who profess faith in Christ Jesus. And he's not speaking of losing
salvation, but rather he speaks to the fact that where partiality
exists, faith in Christ is called into question, which we looked
again at last week. The issue is not the loss of
faith, but rather the existence of faith. He's leading us to the place
that reveals true faith. And that faith works by love.
Now if someone says they love Christ and they hate the brethren,
there's something wrong. There's something seriously wrong
with her. There really is. Let's look at verses 11 to 13
now. For he that said, do not commit adultery,
said also, do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery,
yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So
speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law
of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy that has
showed no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment. Now faith cannot
be proved by anything, but it can be disproved by many things. Loving our neighbor does not
prove the existence of faith, but not loving our brother disproves
the faith as we looked at last week. Ephesians 2.10 again says
that faith produces works which were ordained for us by God.
And again, it's God working in us. We must always remember that. But we can't love our brethren
without faith. See? Men may love without faith, but
none can have faith without love. And this truth is addressed in
the latter part of this chapter. And the words of the passage,
which we are addressing this morning, is a precursor to James'
final words concerning this. So James is setting up a scenario
for us of what it means to have faith in Christ. He's using the if-and-then method
of teaching. If you have faith, then you'll
love your brethren. If you have faith and show respect
to persons, then at worst you have not faith, and at least
your faith is suspect. So in light of these numerous
examples are used all through the scripture to show that Faith
works with love. Without any show of partiality.
And we read in verses one to seven that respect of persons
relative to status denies the spiritual state of all whom Christ
died for. Because they're all chosen in
Christ, aren't they? Rich or poor, and everybody in
between. All believers. We're all poor,
bankrupt sinners before God, no matter what our status is
on this earth. We as believers are saved by the same blood,
the same Savior. We were all chosen in Christ
in eternity. And the law being addressed is
the law of liberty here, to show the absoluteness of it. James
uses the law of Sinai to explain it in verses 10 and 11. And this is not bringing the
believer back to the old covenant. It's merely used to show that
the law is one, to transgress the law in one breach,
you've transgressed it all. So it shows us our guilt before
God. To say you have faith, which
is the perfect law of liberty, believing the perfect law of
liberty, the gospel, and yet to have respect of persons is
to be guilty of unbelief. And look at verse 12. So speak
ye and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy. And mercy rejoices against judgment. So the perfect law of liberty,
the gospel, is the very expression of liberty. We're free. We're free. And think of this,
if we show partiality or respect to persons, we're not showing
mercy, are we? No. And faith doesn't operate that
way. True God-given faith doesn't operate that way, because it
works by love and mercy. And it's the absolute law of
liberty we see in verse 13 to profess faith and to show mercy. We show mercy. You know why we
as God's people show mercy? Because we've been shown mercy
by God. He's shown us much mercy. and
we're free to do well toward our brothers and sisters in Christ,
and if we do evil as a result of having been shown mercy, then
our faith is suspect, right? Here's the heart of it all. Trust
Christ. Look to Christ in all matters. And look at your brothers and
sisters as fellow family members saved by the same blood born
again by the same Spirit. We all have the same Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's God the Father that chose us
all in Christ. And that'll take away any partiality
that we have. To God be the glory.